Chapter 5

The Universal Law of Compensation

IN our quest for the meaning of life, and in our effort to formulate the Law of Soul Progression, we have now arrived at certain definite conclusions. We have decided that any manifestation of intelligence implies a soul, and that back of the soul there is always an ego supplying it with the urge to struggle on. We have found that such souls are so numerous that whenever the conditions on earth permit the expression of a given type of intelligence there is always a soul of such degree of intelligence at hand ready to take charge. And all souls, due to the urge supplied by their egos, express successively in more complex forms; those that take charge and develop physical forms moving from simpler to more complex bodies in rather long steps, and never occupying the body of the same species twice.

But whether on earth or in the astral realm, the desire for continued life and individuality, by which the ego energizes the soul, is recurrently thwarted by constantly changing environmental conditions. To continue its life and individuality, the soul cannot just passively drift; for the new conditions that come upon it tend to the destruction of the form it occupies. It, therefore, struggles to retain the form through which it is manifesting, and when it loses this form it struggles to occupy another form. And these struggles to retain a form develop the ability to overcome obstacles, and thus in time, to handle a still more complex body.

That it may be aware of conditions which threaten the destruction of its form, the soul has developed a sensation which we call pain. And that it may be aware of conditions which favor the life and prosperity of its form, the soul has developed a sensation which we call pleasure.

The only possible means by which any soul learns to overcome obstacles, which alone constitutes accomplishment, is through encountering obstacles. It does not immediately know how to handle the affairs of a solar system; no more so than a child knows how to walk as soon as it is born.

The child desires to reach certain objects which seem pleasant. In its struggles to do this it learns to crawl. This method of locomotion, however, has its disadvantages, and before long the child tries to walk. At first it supports itself more or less erect by whatever it can touch. When it falls and bumps itself, as it does, it experiences pain. This pain, however, is not a matter of vengeance meted out by its parents. The pain informs it that something has gone wrong. It struggles not to fall, so as to avoid pain.

When it is successful in keeping erect it crows with pleasure. This pleasure is still further heightened when it finally succeeds in walking across the room and gaining something it desires in this more satisfactory manner. And this pleasure is an added inducement to encourage it to walk in the future.

Unless there had been an obstacle to the attainment of some desire, it would have made no effort to walk. It had not experienced pain when it failed to walk, or had not experienced pleasure when it did make a successful upright trip, it would have made no effort to keep from falling. And the naturalist, analyzing the performance of various individuals of any species, and analyzing the past and present performances of as many types of life as he can contact, is forced to the conclusion that this performance of the child is characteristic of life everywhere. It does progress, but the progression is made through overcoming obstacles. Pleasure and pain are states of consciousness which keep it informed when it should struggle and whether or not the struggle has led to success.

How Would You Manage a Universe?

Now if you or I were managing a universe, our narrow sense of justice might induce us to endow each soul in the cosmos with just the same amount of energy, just the same attributes, and just the same functions. Such a universe, however, would not be an organic structure, but merely a homogeneous mass.

If every cell in the human body were just the same as every other cell, it would not be a human body, but just an unorganized mass of protoplasm. An organism implies division of labor, and division of labor implies specialization of parts. Thus if every individual connected with an industry performed just the same kind and same amount of work, it could produce only the most simple of articles.

In an industry in which every individual performed the same amount and same kind of labor, it would be logical to give each individual connected with it just the same preliminary training. But if the industry were to be handled according to even human standards of efficiency, different individuals would be required to perform different kinds of tasks. There would be those who would specialize in mechanical work, those who would specialize in management, those who would specialize in accountancy and those who would specialize in salesmanship. And we would not expect the accountant to be as capable in handling mechanical tools as the mechanic. Nor would we demand that the mechanic be an expert accountant.

Yet to develop mechanical ability requires a kind of training that is entirely different from the training necessary to educate an accountant. Salesmanship requires special training of another sort. And in like manner each specialist should have had experience in work that other specialists do not require.

Because even the division of labor required in modern civilization is so diverse, and requires so many types of specialists, the heaviest indictment that can be brought against our public school system is that all the children are trained for too many years as if they were to follow the same occupations. Too long is the special training each requires to develop to the utmost its specific faculties deferred. And because the different needs for individual training are thus so long neglected, our social system loses much of value that better methods in education would bring to it. It loses the high accomplishment that individuals would bring if their specialization had started earlier in life.

It needs to take a leaf from Nature’s book of management. It needs to assay the natural aptitudes of the child soon after birth, and decide just what type of work it is best qualified to perform in the future. It is a decided loss to society for the child to spend years training to follow some occupation in which it will fail. Every failure is a loss to society; for the individual who fails could have been contributing something of value to the world. After failing in one type of work, he usually turns to something else. And if his natural aptitudes and the harmonies of his thought cells, as revealed by his chart of birth, favor this something else, he probably will succeed in it. But both he and society have lost years in training and years, perhaps, in the effort to follow a calling for which he is unsuited.

Ultimately, when the function and value of astrology are widely enough recognized, no such waste of time and energy and materials will be tolerated. The planetary prominence which reveals each type of natural aptitude is now known through the statistical analysis of the birth charts of 100 people who have followed each of 30 different vocations. And the tendency to attract fortune or misfortune within the environment customary to each vocation is known. These are set forth in detail in the reference book, HOW TO SELECT A VOCATION, which contains the result of 18 years’ research relative to vocational selection by The Brotherhood of Light Astrological Research Department.

With this information the type of work for which the individual is best qualified may be known from birth. And for efficiency his training from infancy on should be such that it will enable him to develop his natural aptitudes into abilities which will permit him to perform some specialized work in the world. This does not preclude a liberal education; for a liberal education may increase his value to society. But the object from birth should be to fit the individual for some particular type of function in the world’s economy.

Usually with each combination of natural aptitudes which are shown by the chart of birth, there are alternate vocations, or alternate functions within a selected vocation, which may be followed. The choice of one of these may well be left to the child when he grows older. There should be no effort upon the part of adults to force the youngster to follow a definite vocation. Instead, the parents or society should see to it that he is given the type of education and vocational training which will develop his natural aptitudes into abilities, leaving the final choice of the particular field in which these abilities are to be used to the individual and the guidance offered him by his chart of birth.

If the youngster has not been forced, and thus associated pain with the use of his abilities, he will find great pleasure in using those in which he shows most excellence. His power to perform some function better than the average individual can perform it will appeal to his Drive for Significance. And a little encouragement and praise—instead of driving him against his desires—will condition him to gain a high degree of pleasure from the exercise of his special abilities and this pleasure in feeling superior because of accomplishment will cause him to exert himself strenuously to give even better performance thus developing his abilities still more.

When such a youth reaches maturity, whatever natural talents he has will be developed into abilities ready to be put to work both to benefit himself and to contribute to the welfare of society. He is then a specialized part in the world’s industry, able to contribute his maximum to the general economy.

By watching the lives of those who have a thorough knowledge of astrology, and who apply induced emotion and directed thinking based on this knowledge, I am convinced that through astrological guidance and such application of induced emotion and directed thinking, the effectiveness of human life can be doubled. Merely the guidance in training for the most suitable vocation as above indicated results in great human gain. But if they were managing a universe, those who insist all children should be given the same training, instead of educating different souls to perform different types of work, probably would give to all souls the same experiences, so that each could perform the same function as the other. Yet a universe inhabited by souls thus incapable of any high degree of specialized labor would be a totally inefficient organization.

How the Divine Mind Runs the Universe

But instead of deciding how many people would manage the development of a universal organization, it is more profitable to look about and try to discern how the Divine Mind, which actually does run the universe, handles such things.

And the most obvious thing of all is that life forms are unlike and that they actually are undergoing different training; that is, their experiences are different.

It is said that no two grains of sand on the beach are exactly the same, and certain it is that no two undergo just the same experiences. No two plants of a certain species are the same, and no two undergo the same training.

One stalk of wheat is devoured before maturity by ground squirrels, while its neighboring stalk acquires a full head of grain. One fox is caught in a steel trap before it is a year old, endures untold agony for a day or two, is found and killed by the trapper, and its fur goes to adorn some lady who prides herself on her kindness and gentility. Another fox of the same litter escapes the trap and roams the hills for years. But why give further examples, when observing the life of any living thing cannot but bring the conviction that its experiences are different from the experiences of any other living thing?

If we permit the evidence of our eyes to have weight, instead of the theories as to how a cosmos should be run, we must soon be convinced that equality and sameness are not found in Nature. And we must also quickly become convinced that each life form is undergoing a somewhat different training than any other life form. These experiences, as I have pointed out in the previous chapter (Serial Lesson 212), are the only means by which the soul occupying a life form can acquire ability. And, as we recognize even in the training of children, different kinds of training, which means different experiences, develop different types of ability.

If we permit Nature to speak for herself, she tells us in no uncertain terms that her object, instead of being a monotonous sameness, is to produce the utmost diversity. For nowhere, in any kingdom of life, do we find exactly the same conditions, exactly the same opportunities, or exactly the same fortunes. Instead, we are always confronted with diversity of form, diversity of opportunity, diversity of fortune, and the consequent development of diverse characters which have the ability to perform different and diverse functions.

Such observations, which anyone can make for himself, make it impossible to believe—unless we think of man as under some special dispensation not shared by other life forms—that in some realm, past or future, all human souls will have the same opportunities, all undergo similar training, and all achieve the same end and function. The divergency between the abilities, opportunities and fortunes of men are the same types of divergencies that obtain among the members of any species of life. For man is not unique. He is merely the highest type of life as yet developed on the earth, differing from other types only in degree, but not in kind.

Therefore, for the moment disregarding the probable purpose of it, what we see daily on every hand are life forms each undergoing experiences that are different than the experiences of other life forms. All life forms, due to changing conditions, are confronted with obstacles. But the difficulties experienced by one life form are slightly or greatly different from those experienced by another life form. Furthermore, because of difference in ability, what one life form does when confronted by a difficulty may be different from what another life form does when confronted by a somewhat similar difficulty.

Yet the difficulties met, and the struggles to overcome them, are the only sources of training by which a soul can develop its abilities. They are the only means by which a soul can test and develop its power. Even when the life form is destroyed in its struggle to overcome a difficulty, it has learned something, just as a marksman, even when he misses the mark, learns something about shooting. People and other life forms learn by their failures as well as by their successes.

But as the difficulties met and the way they are handled differ with different life forms, they inevitably also develop different kinds of ability. Just as a watchmaker undergoes one kind of training and a locomotive engineer another kind, so all life forms, as actually observed, are undergoing different kinds of training. And these different kinds of training must inevitably develop in them different kinds of ability.

Therefore, because we observe in nature the greatest diversity of form and the greatest diversity of fortune used to train these forms, we are forced to the conviction that among all these life forms, either on the physical plane, or those on the inner plane, insofar as we can observe them either by physical sight or clairvoyant vision, they are being trained in a manner to produce the greatest diversity of ability.

Whatever theory we might develop to account for it, actual observation on any plane proves that souls have not the same abilities, and that the training they are now undergoing is such as to develop in each certain abilities that are not being developed by other souls.

Training for the Larger Organization

While only the clairvoyant vision of one highly trained can perceive it, yet even to those familiar only with some degree of efficiency in organization as found on the earth, it is not difficult to conclude that this great diversity in ability fits them for performing specialized functions in an intelligently planned organization. And the seer whose vision is not blockaded by either the orthodox notions of the Occident or the orthodox notions of the Orient can actually contact such larger organizations of souls. He can perceive somewhat of their workings, and become convinced by firsthand knowledge that in these organizations of souls who have developed their abilities on earth, but have long since graduated from the need of earthly experiences, there is high specialization and division of labor.

Some of the souls in these afterlife organizations have had far more pain in their training than others, some have had more pleasures, and while on earth some had greater worldly success, some had greater worldly loss, some have had more extensive experiences with affectional relations. In fact, their training called for just those inequalities of experience that we today observe all around us. Pleasure and pain, success and failure, all have contributed to their training.

And to the orthodox of either East or West, this seems decidedly unfair. It seems like a misapplication of justice that one individual, except for moral turpitude, should experience more pain than another. Yet, as a matter of fact, just this does take place. And I am sure the exalted souls who now consciously perform important functions in a super-mundane organization, none of them feels he is unrepaid for the hardships of his training.

Lincoln, from the orthodox view, had a right to complain loudly, because few men of his time underwent the privations and handled the difficulties that he did. Had he not become, in early life, accustomed to painful burdens, he would not have been able to handle the still larger ones later in life. When Lincoln, as President of the United States, became the instrument through whom the slaves were freed, I imagine the joy and satisfaction of this accomplishment more than compensated him for all the disappointments and pains he had ever experienced. Even when he was assassinated I imagine he felt, not that he was an unfortunate creature, but that he was one highly favored that his life had been instrumental in accomplishing so much for his country and for the betterment of mankind.

The trials that most of us underwent while we were children in school, at that time seemed important. When we failed in a lesson, when we were punished, when we had conflicts with other children, when we were ridiculed for some mistake; all these things seemed momentous. But, even though there were real hardships, sicknesses, difficulties and pain, most of us now, looking back, have a healthy enough point of view to laugh at them.

From our present vantage point all the terrible vicissitudes which we then felt we were undergoing seem important only for one thing; they were experiences which contributed to our education. The thing that seems important now is not whether some other child was petted by the teacher, whether some other child had better health, won the class contests, or gave us a thrashing. These inequalities of that time now seem incidental. The thing that now looms large is, whether or not we developed such abilities as fitted us for adult life.

But because we refuse, in the face of observing how Nature does act, to accept the notions of orthodoxies which were formulated before anyone took the pains to observe what actually goes on about us, does not signify that there is not a still higher justice.

Not because it is a theory which coincides with how we think the cosmos should be run, but because actual observation of life forms on earth and on other planes indicates it to be a fact, we must accept the belief that there is always compensation for effort. The effort of a life form, whether on this plane or on some other plane, is never wasted. For effort expended, there is always adequate return.

The Law of Compensation

But the rewards of effort are not necessarily in the direction of gaining pleasure and avoiding pain; nor in terms of health, wealth, affectional joys, or honor. The universal reward of effort is GREATER ABILITY.

There is the constant effort, upon the part of all life forms, to triumph over the difficulties which inevitably confront them. The struggle that ensues may be accompanied by pain, or the life form may become so conditioned that it is not conscious of pain, but experiences only pleasure in the struggle. And while the pain and pleasure experienced do influence the type of events attracted in the future, whether they shall be more severe or less severe, the pain and pleasure are not the important things connected with the struggle. The important thing about any effort to surmount an obstacle or weather a condition, insofar as the soul is concerned, is not whether the obstacle is surmounted or the condition mastered, not the pain and not the pleasure, but that to the extent it has tried to overcome the difficulty it has learned something.

To the body which it temporarily occupies, the success or the failure to adapt itself to a situation may be a matter of life or death. But to the soul occupying the body, life and death are important only as they furnish the experiences which develop the ability and character of the soul. The supremely important thing to the soul is not whether the body has three square meals a day, whether its followers give it due esteem, whether its affections are satisfied. To the soul the one really important thing is the amount of its advancement in that training which is preparing it for its own particular function in the universal organization.

Biologists are most insistent in this, that associated with every bit of protoplasm is something which remembers, and thus possesses the fundamental quality which makes learning possible. And any seer of experience is equally emphatic that all the life forms he has contacted on the inner planes have a similar quality. This property of learning through experience is an essential quality of every soul, however simple or however complex. And the most significant thing observed in the various life forms around us is that through experience they learn to do things.

The amount of progress, however, depends upon the strength of the effort. When they struggle to accomplish, either physically or mentally, people and other creatures learn faster than when they make less effort. Such effort, of course, varies in quality as well as in volume, but other things being equal, life forms gain in ability fastest when they make the most effort to be successful in overcoming whatever difficulties may be present. The principle of justice, therefore, which we can actually observe in operation, and which applies to all life forms, from the simplest to the most complex, on all planes of existence, is that the soul advances in the development of its own special abilities in proportion to the effort it makes. In soul progression, this is the LAW OF COMPENSATION.

Efficiency

Now, because of our familiarity with the class system of earth, in which one class, or one occupation, is considered to be more dignified, enjoyable, and yielding in material advantages, if you and I were to construct a universe, perhaps, we would permit each life form in it ultimately to perform just the same work, in order that one life form might not receive an unjust reward. From our viewpoint on earth, it is difficult to conceive of a society in which the reward for doing one kind of work is not superior to the reward for doing another kind of work; for we think of reward in terms of health, wealth, social success, and honor.

Yet even on earth, when the individual has found the particular work for which he is fitted, and consequently in which he excels, it is seldom he would relinquish it in favor of some other work which brings a higher reward in material things. Perhaps the athlete who wins a world record in the pole vault is envious of the salary paid to some writer of fiction; but in terms of self-satisfaction he feels that he has the superior reward. The painter may admire the orator, but if he has a real flair for painting, and makes an unusual success of it, he would far rather remain an artist than make speeches. And because being the president of a country is the place of highest material honor, it is usually spoken of as a position anyone would be glad to fill. Yet I doubt very much if the man who loves music, and is the best performer on some special instrument, would trade places with the President, even if he felt sure he could manage the job.

There is no other reward that can compare with the abiding sense of satisfaction felt by the individual who has found his work, and who believes he performs it better than any other human being. Such superior accomplishment, and the sense of importance it brings, appeal directly to the power urges, than which there is no stronger appeal.

Then there is the matter of the great and the small, and the more important and the less important, to be considered. What is the great?

In comparison to ourselves the earth seems large; but it is small compared with the sun. The sun seems large, but its place dwindles to minimum importance compared to our stellar galaxy. And this galaxy is but a single life cell, a cosmic amoebae, as it were, among the million other known universes performing their life processes within the body of our cosmos. What grander organizations of physical substance are there, of which such a cosmos is but a cell?

As to intelligence, that of man is important in comparison to the intelligence of a cell within his body. But there are other intelligences which dwarf his puny mental faculties as completely as he dwarfs those of a single cell. What, then, is important? What is large and what is small?

Then consider the human body. In one sense the heart may be more important than the stomach, and the hand may be more important than the feet. The eye may be superior to the ear, and the lungs superior to the liver. Yet all are essential to the proper functioning of the body, and each is important in a way that the other is not. I can hardly believe that one organ of the body should feel it unjustly treated because it is not performing the functions of some other organ. Each in its own way is important, in that it is called upon to do something which it can do better than any other organ.

And so, from observing how life forms act on the inner, as well as on the outer plane, I have come to the conclusion that large and small, important and unimportant, are rather misleading conceptions when applied to a soul. For when a soul is performing a work in the universe that it can perform better than any other soul, a work which is essential to the proper functioning of the universal organism, that soul is important. And when it becomes conscious that it can do this particular thing better than any other, and that doing it is important to the rest of creation, like the workman on earth who excels, it then experiences a deep and abiding satisfaction.

As to the great and the small, the soul is limited in advancement along the line of its own type of accomplishment only by the amount of effort it makes. For effort leads to soul progression.

Polarity

I have previously intimated that the universal and uniform law which is applicable alike to every intelligence in the universe, which I call the Law of Soul Progression, that explains the performance of all souls on all planes of existence, when fully formulated must embrace four terms: energy, polarity, pleasure and pain.

And I have gone somewhat into detail to explain that pleasure is not something developed as a reward for the righteous, but is a sense which the soul has developed to inform it when it is successful. I have somewhat fully also explained that pain is not something developed as a punishment for the wicked, but is a sense which the soul has developed to inform it when it is being unsuccessful. And I have now indicated that energy devoted to the effort to overcome difficulties always brings a commensurate compensation. This compensation, however, which comes to the soul of a tuft of grass or to the soul occupying the body of a worm, as well as to the soul inhabiting the form of man, is not in terms of physical success or physical failure, nor in terms of pleasure and pain in some future life, but in terms of greater ability. All intelligences expand in their knowledge of how to accomplish things through making the effort to overcome difficulties. Nor does ability develop anywhere, to any soul, through any other means.

But I have not yet made any explanation of the part that polarity plays in the formula which expresses the way in which all souls perform. By polarity I mean the quality of exerting an attractive power in certain directions and of exerting a repellent power in other directions.

Now if all souls at the start of their differentiated existence had just the same polarity, just the same amount and type of attractive force, they would all tend to attract to themselves the same things, and would tend to have the same kinds of experiences; for experiences are attracted which correspond to the polarity of the soul. But as I have been at considerable pains to point out, so far as we can perceive, of all the life forms in existence, no two seem to have just the same experiences. Observation of their lives forces us to conclude that, on the contrary, the experiences of life forms, and therefore of the souls occupying them, are of the utmost diversity. And to account for this, unless we adopt the manifestly erroneous view that the only difference between one intelligence and another is that of age, we are compelled to believe that the attractive and repulsive force with which they were endowed when differentiated was different.

If we ask why one soul should be given one type of polarity, or attractive and repulsive power, and another soul a different type of polarity, it brings us back to what we observe. We observe that the universe is an organization in which, as in any efficient organization, there is specialization of parts and division of labor. Yet if all souls had the same polarity, and consequently underwent similar experiences, there could be no such efficient organization, because the abilities of all souls would be practically the same. Instead of being an organization capable of producing things of great complexity, it would be merely a homogeneous mass; as man’s body would be if instead of there being cells and organs to perform the different functions, it was just a group of all-similar cells.

As the polarity of a soul accounts for the training it gets, through the type and amount of experiences it attracts, this polarity determines what kind of work it shall later be able to perform most effectively. That is, the kind of work that a soul shall be able to do in the cosmic scheme of things is determined at the moment of its differentiation. It is endowed, at the very start, with attractive and repellent qualities, and because of these, it attracts events that another soul does not attract, and it avoids types of events that another soul attracts.

It would be preposterous for any human being to assume what is in the Divine Mind, other than through turning in on as high an expression of it as possible and through observing its works. But judging from what we actually see, that souls are being fitted to do different things, and that even now, here on earth and in the astral spaces, souls do perform different functions which each add something to the welfare of universal society, we are justified in concluding that the reason souls are given different polarity at start is because they will be given different functions to perform in the universal scheme of things.

Viewing the cosmos as a vast living organism, in which angelic intelligences are mere cells, and intelligences such as man’s are still in the early stages of training, comparable to the electrons within an atom of matter performing their movements as less than microscopic portions of a cell; from this view, we are justified in believing that egos are differentiated by the Divine Mind to develop souls to perform a given function. Souls are not developed just haphazard, catch-as-catch-can. But under the law of a supply being provided to meet a specific demand, each ego with its two souls is brought into differentiated existence for a definite purpose. There is a future need forming in the ever-expanding, ever-progressing organism of Divinity for souls which can do certain things. And to perform this function, this particular work, even as our large corporations on earth train their executives and all their other help, starting them with simple tasks, so a soul from its beginning is given a polarity which will attract to it those experiences which will train it most effectively for the performance of the needed work.

If we take this view, which logically follows the observation of what is actually going on about us, it gives us a very different conception of life and its purpose than that held by the orthodoxies of the West or the orthodoxies of the East.

Instead of considering the multitudinous intelligences which are all about us, both in physical life forms and in astral life forms, as under different laws and actuated by different principles, this more inclusive perspective enables us to perceive that all intelligences come into existence and perform their functions according to a single great law. Numerous as they are, rivaling in number the photons of light that are radiated by sun and stars, each and everyone is brought into existence in answer to a definite demand arising in the cosmic organism.

The cosmos, like all those parts of it which we can observe, is in a process of development. It moves ever forward, constantly expanding, constantly becoming more complex, constantly increasing its capacities; a never-ending progression. And this ceaseless expansion and development of abilities creates a continuous demand for intelligences which have the ability to perform those functions which the development within the cosmos makes necessary.

It is as if there were an industrial organization, or a chain store organization, which was not static, but which was constantly increasing in size and constantly taking upon itself the performance of new and more complex duties. Older members, to the extent they exhibit sufficient ability, would be promoted to stations of more importance. And to take their place new help would be hired. Yet even though this new help were given simple tasks to perform at start, these tasks would be of such a nature as to train them for definite positions higher up.

Some would be engaged to develop into accountants, some to become sales managers having charge of a given territory, and others to be developed into heads of departments. And if, as in the case with the cosmos, the organization should continue to expand, new help would be hired right along, and old help of ability would be advanced to fill still more important positions. The continuous demand for intelligences to perform more complex functions would have to be met if the organization was to continue to make progress.

From what we see of life forms, their number, and the way they behave, we are compelled to conclude that some such process as this is taking place in the cosmos. The expanding cosmic enterprise makes a demand for new intelligences. But these new intelligences are not just any kind of intelligences. The demands of the cosmic organization are for intelligences with ability to do specific needful things. Therefore, to meet this demand, new souls (for all intelligences are souls) are differentiated. But in their differentiation they are not given the same polarity. The polarity, which means attractive and repulsive power, with which each is endowed at the moment of its differentiation is such as to cause it to have a “flare” for the particular kind of work that the cosmic organization, in time, will have need of.

Just as the efficient president of a progressive corporation on earth looks ahead twenty years, and hires his new help with a view to their ability to develop talents which will enable them to perform complex duties at that future date, so cosmic intelligence brings souls into differentiated existence with a polarity determined by the future demand for special talent.

Even as people when born on earth have the ability to develop certain traits which fit them to perform specific kinds of work, and do not have the ability to develop into high grade workmen in other lines, so souls at their differentiation are given a polarity which enables them to develop certain talents and prevents them from developing other talents to any high degree. You may think this is unjust that all should not fare just alike in the distribution of talent; but from the broader point of view, it is a working of justice. For, after all, each soul is happiest and best satisfied when doing the things which it is fitted to do. A hand is a hand, and a foot is a foot, and neither should be envious of the other; for if it performs its own activities successfully it can gain as much satisfaction as can the other.

But when we think of souls which are brought into differentiated existence to perform a future function for which a demand is arising in the cosmic organization, we must not think merely of human souls, or even of those souls which will ultimately incarnate in human form, or which have in the past occupied a human form. We must consider that the intelligence occupying every cell of our body, the intelligence occupying every little plant, the intelligence of each elemental in the spaces, the intelligence of astral entities of all sorts which never incarnate in matter, spiritual intelligences, angelic intelligences, and those even greater, all have come into differentiated existence and developed in obedience to this law of cosmic demand and supply.

An intelligence implies a soul, and back of the soul an ego; and every soul in the universe, having come into differentiated existence in answer to cosmic demand, has a polarity which attracts to it events of one type and which repels from it events of another type. This attractive and repellent quality with which the soul is endowed at very start thus determines the kind of training it will receive.

The power which causes a soul ever to struggle onward, which does not permit it to cease its efforts and sink into oblivion, is furnished by its ego. In this sense the power urges, which developed in specific directions in human life become the most insistent of all mental factors, date back to the very beginning of the soul’s existence. As yet it does not know the purpose of the struggle, for even arrived at the state of manhood few souls grasp the real significance of their existence, but the power urges, if we may call them this before consciousness has further developed, cause it to make an effort to move forward, to develop a form, and to have experiences. Like the newborn infant, it struggles without knowing why.

These struggles of the soul give it experience, and experience, recorded in its finer structure gives it added attractive and repulsive power by which it attracts a new form which is more complex. This process I have already considered in Chapter 1 (Serial Lesson 209), as applied to the evolution of souls through life forms on earth. But the matter of polarity needs further attention. For each soul, at start having different attractive and repulsive powers, no two souls attract the same events, and thus no two have just the same training, and no two develop just the same abilities.

Harmony and Discord

Due to the original polarity of a soul, some of the experiences it attracts are painful and some of them are pleasurable; which is just another way of stating that at times it is confronted with difficulties that tend to the destruction of its form or the blocking of its desires, and at other times it overcomes such difficulties as are present and gains satisfaction for its desires.

But every experience which is recorded in the finer form as a discord, as painful, has a property of attracting a discordant, or painful, event in the future. And every experience which is recorded in the finer form as a harmony, as a pleasure, has a property of attracting a harmonious event in the future. There is thus a tendency for a soul which has developed considerable harmony to attract only harmonious conditions, and one which has had many hardships to continue to attract them. But if a soul were always confronted with difficulties it could not surmount, that is only by painful conditions, its training would be unduly severe, and through always being defeated in its struggle it might tend to lose the incentive to struggle. And if the difficulties presented were insignificant, and always easily triumphed over, giving rise only to pleasure, the greatest efforts would not be called upon and the soul might not progress as rapidly as otherwise.

But in Nature we find a force constantly at work which tends to bring to the soul difficulties which alternately are easy to overcome and difficult to surmount. This force is the impact of astrological energies. That is, in addition to the attraction for painful events and the attraction for pleasurable events, the attraction for great difficulties and for those easily resulting in success, which are derived from its past experiences with pain and pleasure, there are astrological forces which periodically accentuate certain of these harmonies within the finer form, so that events exclusively of one type are not attracted.

How these astrological forces operate in human life is well understood through the study of progressed aspects. And similar astrological conditions have an influence over life forms of all kinds and on all planes.

The types of events attracted to a soul at a given time are those which correspond to its need for experiences which will give it the proper training to fit it for its functions in the universal organization. But in addition to painful experiences and pleasurable experiences attracted through the original polarity of the soul, there is an additional factor, that of the impact of astrological forces, such as trines and squares, which modify this, and at times bring conditions leading to success, which is the triumphing over conditions, and at other times bring loss, which is failure to overcome difficulties. Yet such successes and failures are comparative. For even under astrological impact, the difficulties encountered in comparison to the ability to overcome them is chiefly determined by past experiences. Yet it is found that, when a soul learns how, though not escaping severe difficulties, but going forth to meet them instead, it is able to avoid the pain and get its training henceforth quite as speedily through the attractive power of pleasure. That is, arrived at a certain point of evolution, a soul can employ the pleasure technique instead of the pain technique in its further training, and advance even more rapidly and live even more effectively.

Birth Charts

Gaston B. Means Chart

July 27, 1879, 0:31 a.m. 80W. 35N.Data secured by Norma Forest.

March 1, 1932, the baby of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh was kidnapped and murdered. (See B. of L. Lesson No. 109 for charts and progressed aspects of the Lindberghs.)

Before it was known the baby had been murdered, large sums of money were offered for information leading to its return.

1933, May, newspapers alleged he was convicted of defrauding Mrs. McLean of $104,000 in the Lindbergh baby case and sentenced to 15 years in prison and the payment of $10,000 fine: Sun sesquisquare Neptune in house of prison, Mars conjunction Pluto in house of prison (twelfth).

Hiram Johnson Chart

September 2, 1866, 10:00 a.m. 121:30W. 38:35N.Data given by his father.

1886, left University of California in junior year to marry: Venus opposition Pluto r, Sun semisquare Pluto r.

1886, shorthand reporter, studied law: Mercury trine Jupiter r.

1888, commenced practice of law: Mars conjunction Uranus p.

1902, started a long and dangerous fight (an associate was assassinated) to clean up ring of San Francisco grafters: Sun inconjunct Pluto r, Mars sextile Pluto r (racketeers).